Well, last night I was driving down Highway 316 in Georgia, and I get to a red light when all of a sudden white smoke starts coming out of the right side of the engine. I had been pushing the car a little hard earlier and was on my way to get gas before going to my sister's house. Well, I pulled over and noticed that some radiator fluid had been leaking and the car slung the belt that pulled the alternator, cooling fan, and water pump. Well, the belt was still hanging so I pulled out my toolbox from the trunk and put it back and tightened it up and knew I needed to put some water in the motor so it didn't run hot. Luckily a QT gas station was right across the street so I pulled in and put in 3 gal. of water in (enugh to get me home). But this time when I popped the hood the entire belt was gone! So I got it towed home and now it's sitting dead in my driveway. It will crank up but just runs hot because nothing is turning the water pump or cooling fan.

So can anyone suggest what I do from here? I've never had this happen before.

Thanks

 

It sounds like your car just over heated because the waterpump wasn't turning. Hopefully no serious damage resulted. What worries me is the fact that your belt broke, strange... all you can do is put on a new belt, run it and watch.

 

Ok man, thanks for the advise. Anyone else have any suggestions before going into the hood?

 

Where was the coolent leaking from?? Kinda sounds like you may have blown a head gasket, are all of you accesories turning freely? There has to be a reason its chucking the belt, maybe the water pump is seized up.

 

Sounds like a typical belt problem. I've had it happen before, you probably need a new belt since the old one was just loose. Either that, or you lost a bolt from one of your accessory brackets and it caused the alternator to move. Either way, I doubt you did any serious damage, as long as you didn't run it too hot for too long. Go buy a belt!

 

Spin the alternator and water pump pulleys by hand to make sure you don't have a bad bearing. That can cause tossed belt.

 

Well, all parts move like normal, and all bolts are still in place. I'm going to replace the belt tonight and see if it helps then.

 

check all the bearings too see if anything is bent or out of shape, causein the belt to ware worng.... hopefully you just over heated and nothing seroius happened...

 

do like i did. get tired of throwing belts a 7000+ rpm and go to a csi water pump, and a march eletric water pump serp system. 7000+ rpm and still havent thrown the belt.

 

Well, I replaced the belt and tightened everything up. Been driving it for 3 days now and it runs fine. Not running hot at all. Thanks for all of your suggestions, and that water pump I did might be my next upgrade.

 

Unless I missed something else the most important thing that happened is the white smoke. If the smoke came out the tail pipe then you have a blown headgasket period. If you were running the car hard then you probably threw the pump belt, heated up the motor and blew the gasket. You are probably lucky you didnt coke the oil, sieze the bearings etc. I bet at the least you have scored the bearings somewhat and one day might hear a little dwarf trying to knock his way outside of your engine. Good Luck

jim

 

White smoke out of the hood, not the tail pipe.